


Five Lessons Anakin Shared, Plus One Ahsoka Showed Him

by Merfilly



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Training
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-31
Updated: 2017-03-31
Packaged: 2018-10-13 07:07:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10508808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: So Anakin was supposed to train Ahsoka. We don't really see a lot of that in the show. This tackles some of that.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a prompt from email.

"If I'm going to train you, little one, I need to know where your limits are currently, right?" Anakin asked affably, walking alongside his padawan to the bay they had mostly cleared. The new fighters to replace those lost at and around Christophsis and Teth had not yet reached them.

"Alright, Skyguy," Ahsoka agreed, her lips flexing with amusement into something that wasn't quite an arrogant smirk, but they came close.

"Which Form are you most comfortable with?" Anakin asked. "Your reverse grip looks awkward to me, but I can't deny you are effective with it."

"I tend to fall into Shien, but I was ranked in the salle for it, Ataru, and was working on Jar'kai," Ahsoka told him. "I am capable of using any of them, even Juyo, as I used to watch Masters Billaba and Windu with their variant," she told him.

Anakin's eyebrow went up. "I thought only Obi-Wan was that talented," he said idly, making her glow at the unconscious compliment. "Jar'Kai, but you only carry one lightsaber?"

Ahsoka grimaced. "My shepherd for the gathering wouldn't let me take both crystals that called to me on Ilum," she admitted. "Some day, I'll make a second one!"

Anakin frowned. "If we're ever near a planet with proper crystals, I'll give you a chance to try and find one, Ahsoka, if you really want to. With Grievous running around using four of them, and Ventress using two, it might be good to have that as a back-up." He stood in the middle of the bay and ignited his lightsaber in the next moment. "Come at me with all you've got, Snips, so I can see where you are."

Ahsoka's smile could have powered a battlestation with the bright energy in it and her Force presence, he decided, a half-moment before she engaged him… and he had to take a step back under the quick but strong assault. He reminded himself to investigate the base abilities of the Togruta species and her homeworld, suspecting it was a higher-gravity world for all the strength she brought to bear in her blows, and the speed that easily rivaled the best duelists he'd faced.

He tried not to notice some of the men slipping in around the edges of the bay, and up on the catwalks, chalking up another bit of praise for Ahsoka when the observers did not phase her either. He still wasn't so sure he was ready to teach, or that she should even be out here in the war, but he had to admit she had a lot of potential. 

As they sparred, Anakin worked back and forth between his preferred Shien and his knowledge of other forms, just to push her… and honestly, to keep up under her exhibition. There was no doubt in his mind that she had very much earned that skill bead before coming to him, reluctantly in agreement with Master Yoda on something. When he did finally disarm her, it was not with his usual manner of trapping the lightsaber in a tightening spiral; her reverse grip made that near impossible. Instead, he had to make her overreach herself, and use a bruising blow on her wrist to make her drop it.

"That, Snips, was the best workout I have had in weeks," Anakin told her honestly, as she conceded and pulled her lightsaber back with the Force. "How'd you get so good, so young?"

"I don't sleep much? And someone is always in the salle," she said, grinning, because she could see and feel that she had made him proud. "I'd watch everyone."

Anakin paused, glancing at her. "Watching? Not actively being instructed?"

Ahsoka shrugged. "Who wants to spar someone half their size? Who was only an initiate or youngling?"

"Obi-Wan's in trouble," Anakin said, half-grinning back at her. "If you are this good by just watching."

Ahsoka's eyes went huge. "But he's top-ranks in nearly every Form!"

"And you're going to give him trouble keeping that as you grow into your full potential, Snips. Don't forget it… but don't let it go to your head, either. Lightsaber's not all there is to staying alive."

"I know… and I have you, Skyguy, to teach me the rest of it!"

* * *

"You've got to relax," Anakin told his padawan, even as he felt like he was going to explode just from letting her be the one piloting. "You're never like this in the _Twilight_ or when you handle a shuttle. Why do you tense up so badly in the single and double fliers?"

Ahsoka didn't answer right away, as she tried to find the right words for it, tried to push her discomfort into the Force to be better at what she was doing. She knew, down in her core, that she was more than skilled at piloting. It was just that she was not only Skyguy's padawan, but her Finder was Plo Koon. Both men were held to be the epitome of being Jedi Pilots, and she would never be at their level.

She wasn't used to failing to excel, but the simple fact of it was that the smaller ships made her uncomfortable.

"This isn't about Ryloth, is it?"

Anakin's words shocked her out of all efforts to let go of the trouble into the Force. "What? NO! Master, I would never dishonor our men, **my men** by letting their deaths block me from being the best I can be!"

She had vowed to never, ever make those kind of mistakes again, and generally in combat, she was able to tune out the fact she was trapped in such a small space, the sound of the engines reverberating through her montrals and pushing her —

— oh. Ahsoka's sudden realization that she did know why the small fliers bothered her was not lost on Anakin, who made a quiet noise of curiosity.

"Skyguy, I'm still adjusting to my montrals," she began, hoping he didn't take it as a cop-out. "In the shuttles, the _Twilight_? There's a lot more space to diffuse ambient noise in, to keep me from hyper-focusing on the buzz of the engines and shields. I can work on it; I know I'm supposed to block out distractions, and I mostly do in combat—"

Anakin picked up on her meaning almost immediately and interrupted her. "Oh, Snips. I never even stopped to think it might be a physical limitation," he admitted. "But yeah, that makes a ton of sense, and explains why your simulator scores are so high, and how you fly so well in formation for battle, but these training flights are sub-par. I was expecting better, because of those two things… and you don't have anything to refocus the noise away. Of course you're tense. Headaches after being in the small fighters?" he asked.

Ahsoka sighed. "Yeah… never really thought about it, but my montrals are usually buzzy for a while, and my lekku are tight with stress, and my head hurts. Even after combat runs."

"Alright, we'll strip your fighter down as we can, see what kind of noise baffling we can get put in place," Anakin said, making his decision now that they had a reason.

"Really?" Ahsoka asked, her voice going small.

"Yeah, Snips. Gotta take care of my padawan. Which means we're scrapping this training run and heading back now, before you do get a headache."

"Got it, Skyguy."

* * *

"You don't negotiate the same way Master Obi-Wan does," Ahsoka commented as they walked away from the village elders, relieved that the boys would have some fresh food soon to supplement ration paste. It was a gift for having ironed out a border dispute.

"You mean I don't open with flirtation, move to confusing, and end on assuming everything is going his way? Which it does, because the other side is really confused?" Anakin asked cheerfully.

Ahsoka had to giggle at that. "That's not what he does, Skyguy!" At Anakin's look, she laughed more. "Okay, maybe a little."

"So what did you take away from this meeting?" Anakin asked, trying to be conscious of the fact he was shaping Ahsoka for the future.

Ahsoka considered. "Know each side's actual position, plus what they claim their position is. Don't take either position at face value. Find the common points, and hammer on those until the two sides see they're being idiots and agree?"

Anakin had to laugh, but that was actually a very fair breakdown of his style of negotiation. "Works, Snips. And maybe we ought to let you go with Obi-Wan one of these days, just to study his technique. Who knows? You might come up with a way that blends them and works even better." He rested his hand on her shoulder proudly. "You're on track to be a pretty solid Jedi, after all. Of course, you're **my** padawan, so it should come naturally."

Ahsoka rolled her eyes, but she was feeling warm all over, knowing her master really believed in her potential.

* * *

The ship was in hyperspace. Most of the troops were actually off-duty, likely sleeping or making art, and Ahsoka was wide awake. She didn't really want to go to the bridge, and she didn't feel right intruding on the men currently. They'd had a really bad run this time, with Asajj showing up, using the Force against them before Ahsoka and Anakin had managed to threaten her enough for her to run away.

Some day, Ahsoka was going to actually beat the witch in combat.

Trying to be quiet, Ahsoka slipped out of her quarters… and found Skyguy sitting in the common room, working on his latest project for the _Twilight_.

"Up already?" Anakin asked. 

"Couldn't sleep," she said with a sigh.

Anakin looked over, then set the module down and gestured for her to join him.

"Still bugged by that witch escaping again? I know I am."

Ahsoka came and sat next to him, pulling her knees up and locking her arms around them. Anakin read the body language easily enough and picked up the module again, using it to keep his hands busy so he didn't wrap an arm around her.

"It's less that and more… how does someone get like that? I mean, someone who can feel the Force and its connection to life? How can you willfully kill so many, when their deaths are right there on your senses?"

"Asking the hard questions tonight, aren't you?" Anakin commented, rather than let those words slide too deeply into his veins. No one but Padmé knew what he had done, and he sure as hell wasn't going to burden his padawan with it. For all that she could be a gleeful wrecking ball on the battlefield, he knew for a fact that every sentient she had been forced to kill sat heavily on her shoulders, even if she never hesitated when it was the only right thing for their men.

"I can tell she's very strong in the Force," Ahsoka said softly. "And I've picked up a few of her combat maneuvers from having seen her fight so often."

"Yeah; you managed that Force Push of hers really damned well. Not very many Jedi are comfortable pushing while holding anything, even their lightsabers." Anakin adjust another wave modulator, then spoke again. "We probably won't ever know what pulls her into the Dark. Obi-Wan is totally at a loss about Dooku, especially because he was under the impression Dooku actually liked Master Jinn. To ally with his killers… that makes worse than no sense to Obi-Wan."

"Huh. I didn't know that," Ahsoka said. "I figured he was just power hungry. Maybe she is too, and thinks the war will give her what she wants if she's on his side." 

"Maybe there isn't a reason, not a real one. Maybe she just took the easy path," Anakin said, forcing back how easy it had felt when he took the Force in his hands and —

— Padmé pulled him back from that. He wasn't that scared, heart-broken kid anymore, even if it hadn't been that long ago, really.

Ahsoka looked at him, then slowly nodded. "So, if there's something to get done, and there might be a quicker, easier way to it through the Force, I should probably stop and think about how it will ripple out."

Anakin blinked, then looked at her. Granted, she sometimes still thought like a kid herself, but that was… a pretty good way of looking at it. "Yeah, Snips. Not that I think you'll ever be in much trouble that way. You're too sweet," he teased, just to get her riled up and off this topic. It worked too, as she bared her sharp teeth at him and mock growled.

"Am not!"

* * *

Anakin cracked an eyelid open, half-smiling to himself as he could see the impatient flicking of the tips of Ahsoka's lekku.

"Focus on your breathing, Snips. Even it out, let it guide you away from thinking about everything."

They were supposed to be tackling the joint meditation techniques.

Ahsoka's exasperated sigh announced how well that was going in the next second.

"Master, I don't think we're ready for this," she said, and he knew she had purposefully chosen the title over the nickname because it put distance between them.

Anakin opened his eyes fully, and she did in the next heartbeat, meeting his gaze. Then she giggled, and he had to laugh a little too.

"Obi-Wan was so sure if we tackled this together, we'd get better at meditation in general," Anakin admitted, once he stopped laughing. "It's not my strong suit."

"Or mine, really," she admitted. "If I need to not think, or even to hyperfocus on one thing, I'd rather work on a ship," Ahsoka told him. His smile wet a little sly, and he nodded. 

"Go change. We'll 'meditate' on the _Twilight_ while you help me tune the hyperdrive a little better," he relented, leading to her all but backflipping up and away to do just that.

It seemed like they shared a lot of skills… and a lot of drawbacks. Anakin could care less about meditating the Jedi way, though. If mechanics worked for her like it did him, that was good enough.

* * *

It had been a full twenty minutes since the collapse of the ledge, yet when Anakin got there, he could see Ahsoka locked fully into the Force, moving debris bit by bit, holding back the tide of further rockfalls. He wasn't so sure that she was being very smart; that was a lot of rock and dirt.

"Snips," he said softly.

"They're alive," she snarled at him, making him shift and plant his feet, easing the burden of holding things from sliding further off her ability, so she could do the excavation. Troops were standing by, waiting to jump in and pull their brothers free, but were not allowed to be in the work area apparently.

Anakin didn't ask if she was sure, just supported her, moving to share his abundant flow of Force energy with her as he held things still for her.

Six minutes after he arrived, she had a passage open, and was buttressing it open as her men darted in to get the injured out. Anakin could just barely make out that the AT-TE had fallen just right so its stronger length bracing had kept the rocks off the men.

All of the men were gotten out except the driver, who was confirmed dead and unreachable by one of the shaken survivors. Ahsoka dropped her control once they were all clear, and the subsiding of the rocks, along with a fresh pile as Anakin let go, made a permanent cairn for their lost man.

"How'd you know? The looks of the pile, if the AT-TE had toppled in its normal way, made me think the armor would have been shredded and the men lost," Anakin said.

"I could hear the hollow. It was too big for the AT-TE to have been busted open," she told him wearily. "Then I reached out with the Force, to reinforce the hollow while I moved things," she said, settling on the ground and leaning over her folded legs to rest.

"You what?!"

She had maintained three vectors of Force energy, one of them in motion, and was talking like it was no big thing at all.

"I did what was needed, Skyguy," she answered.

Anakin gestured for the last stretcher that hadn't been needed to be brought over. "No arguing with me, Snips… let them carry you back. I've never heard of anyone doing that. And… later… maybe you can show me just what you can do with your Force control?"

"Sure, Skyguy. Doubt anyone ever needed to do it," she told him, before giving herself over to the care of her men.


End file.
